CULTURE
Arts event to open
An annual event aimed at promoting cultural and arts exchanges between Taiwan and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region will begin in Taipei next week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The Asia-Pacific Culture Day will open on Sept. 6 and, despite the name, will run for two days, featuring music, dance and handicrafts from participating countries throughout the region, the ministry’s Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs deputy director-general Bob Chen (陳龍錦) said. Participating countries will set up booths to introduce their cultures and products, Chen said. Performances will include modern and traditional dances from Japan, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands, along with South Korean percussion performances, he said. The annual event is to be held at Huashan 1914 Creative Park, the ministry said.
EDUCATION
Universities plan league
Top universities in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore are set to form the “Pine League” in an effort to strengthen their partnership and promote academic, arts and sports exchanges, National Taiwan University (NTU) said on Monday. The universities are NTU; China’s Peking University and Tsinghua University; the University of Hong Kong; and the National University of Singapore. NTU said the universities, ranked the top five in the Chinese-speaking world, are all interested in pushing for the league to promote information exchange and cooperation. NTU president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) said the league’s proposed name was inspired by pine trees being a symbol of perseverance, because they usually live for many years. He said the five universities are hoping to work together to contribute to society.
ENTERTAINMENT
S Korean actress to visit
South Korean actress Ha Ji-won will begin a tour of Asia by meeting fans in Taiwan in October, South Korean media said, citing Ha’s representative agency, Haewadal Entertainment. The 36-year-old star gained popularity in the nation for her portrayal of the titular character in the South Korean period TV drama Empress Ki. She played the Korean wife of the last emperor of China’s Yuan Dynasty. In other news, Japanese all-female pop group HKT48 announced that it is set to hold its first concert in Taiwan in December. The concert is to be held at the ATT Show Box in Taipei on Dec. 7. The group was created in 2011 by Japanese record producer Yasushi Akimoto, who also produced the AKB48 franchise.
CULTURE
Poetry show unveils lineup
This year’s Taipei Poetry Festival will feature renowned Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanikawa, among more than 30 writers from home and abroad, organizers said yesterday. At a seminar during the festival, Tanikawa, 83, will speak about his work, said Taipei City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs, which is organizing the festival. The festival, scheduled to run from Oct. 18 until Nov. 2, will also screen a documentary on Tanikawa, one of Japan’s most popular poets, the organizers said. Tanikawa, born in Tokyo, is quite prolific, having written more than 70 collections of poetry, the department said. It said Oksana Lutsyshyna of Ukraine, Joe Dunthorne of the UK and several Taiwanese poets will also be among the participating writers. The festival will include speeches, film screenings and music performances at venues around Taipei to present poetry in different ways, the organizers said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods